- Year
- 2023
- Medium
- Oil on Canvas
- Size
- 30 × 36 in · 76 × 91 cm
This second portrait finds solace in silence's sheltering shade. Where once a solitary man sought such surcease, here a woman leans into stillness' soothing embrace. With head rested 'gainst comforting quiet, her eyes closed yet seeing deeper truths earth's din would drown out.
As with her counterpart, in her muted mien one glimpses respite from clamoring concerns and shallow sounds that daily deafen us to life's lovelier lays. Pressed 'gainst peace's portal thus, she lends voice where before was voiceless - echoing his invitation that we too withdraw at times to rediscover in hush what hubbub robs us of: connection to what's calm, enduring and real beneath surface tremors that trouble us so.
Hers is the solace of retreat, of withdrawal into silence to resurface renewed. Witnessing her refuge's message, one senses an age-old alchemy whereby noise transmutes to nurturance as outer discord finds balance in internal equanimity. In stillness we are stilled; in muting multiplicity's meaningless murmurs we make way for meaning muted till now to music once more the deeper places of our being. Thus does she beckon us to embrace the healing hush she has harboured here, and setting all else aside awhile, restore ourselves in silence as these painted souls have done.
